Search form

Brand-X

Carrying a payload greater than any other fighter currently in service on either side of the Galactic Civil War, the TIE/sa Bomber is the true heavy hitter of the conflict. Although it employs a P-s4 twin ion engine assembly on each side of its dual hulled design, this ship is far more than twice as heavy as its little brothers, even when emptied of ordinance. Because of the poor resultant thrust-to-mass ratio, the TIE/sa is a sluggish and cumbersome vessel, even by Clone Wars standards. What it lacks in speed, however, it more than makes up for in destructive capability.

Though loved by its pilots, the new TIE Interceptor was not without its problems. Most prominently, many aces being moved over to the new class found that they preferred the standard fighter's chin-mounted laser cannons to the Interceptor's wingtip mounts for precision aiming. While the L-s9.3 laser cannon was built for the chin position slot, the Interceptor did not have sufficient power to maintain a full rate of fire for six laser cannons, even with all power being directed to the weapons.

In many ways, the Empire's extensive TIE Advanced program was little more than a series of experiments undertaken to find the best application for Sienar Fleet Systems' new I-s3a solar ionization reactor. The product of more than a decade of research and development, this power plant so outclassed its predecessors that the standard TIE/ln starfighter configuration simply could not be made to take advantage of it.